Delahunt blames Braintree police in '86 Bishop shooting

John P. Kelly

Tuesday

Feb 23, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 23, 2010 at 11:16 PM

With his term expiring, U.S. Rep. William Delahunt is weighing his political future. But it was his distant past – an investigation nearly a quarter century ago – that had him standing before a pack of reporters and photographers in his congressional office.

With his seventh term about to end, U.S. Rep. William Delahunt is weighing his political future. But it’s his distant past – an investigation nearly a quarter-century ago – that has him standing before reporters and photographers in his congressional office.

In unequivocal terms Monday, Delahunt, the former Norfolk County district attorney, defended his office’s handling of a 1986 investigation of Amy Bishop, the 21-year-old Braintree woman who killed her younger brother, Seth, with a shotgun blast to the chest. She was arrested at gunpoint after fleeing the family home with the loaded weapon.

Click here to listen to an interview with Rep. William Delahunt.

After reviewing investigative records, including Seth Bishop’s death certificate, the Quincy Democrat said nothing indicates State Trooper Brian Howe, who conducted the investigation for the district attorney’s office, was wrong to conclude that the shooting was accidental.

But Delahunt said an “opportunity was missed” by not charging Bishop with lesser weapons and assault crimes, which might have prompted a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. For that lapse, Delahunt blamed Braintree police, who freed the woman despite her alleged attempt after the shooting to steal a car from two men at gunpoint.

Delahunt and John Kivlan, who in 1986 was Delahunt's top prosecutor, said Braintree police never informed their office of Bishop's behavior after the shooting. In fact, the two men said local police appeared to have withheld those details -- even though the incidents were clearly laid out in Braintree police reports.

“It’s the handling of that matter which gives rise to serious concerns and raises questions which must be answered so the public will have confidence in the integrity of the criminal justice system,” Delahunt said.

Amy Bishop, a Harvard-educated neuroscientist who is now 45, faces capital murder charges for allegedly gunning down three fellow faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where she recently was denied tenure.

In a press conference the day after the Feb. 12 shootings, Braintree Chief Paul Frazier recalled officers being frustrated Bishop was never charged in 1986. Frazier said a lieutenant booking Bishop after she shot her brother was “instructed” to let her go by then Chief John V. Polio or a member of his command staff. Frazier also said one of the arresting officers, Ronald Solimini, told him reports of the incident disappeared around 1988. Frazier located them early last week.

More than a dozen reporters and photographers filled Delahunt’s congressional office in Quincy for the hourlong press conference. Delahunt had been traveling in the Middle East last week and his remarks Monday are his first since the Alabama shootings.

“All of this outrage that’s coming from Braintree now about how awful it was that she was released – and believe me it was wrong – where have these people been for 23 years?” Kivlan said. “Where were they then? Why didn’t Frazier or Solimini or any number of these officers report that?”

A message left at Frazier’s office was not returned.

“The issue really is at this point: why was Ms. Bishop released from the police station that night?” Kivlan said. “Who authorized that? ... Was there, as Chief Frazier indicated, an intentional cover-up or not? That should really be the focus at this point.”

Polio, now 87, has denied ordering Bishop’s release.

William Keating, the current Norfolk County district attorney, and State Police have said they are reviewing the handling of the case.

John P. Kelly may be reached at jkelly@ledger.com.

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